1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an agent or device for the determination of antigen or antibody, and a method for determining antigen or antibody using the agent or the device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the field of clinical analysis, it is known to detect an antibody or antigen in a blood or serum sample with a high sensitivity, by utilizing the agglutination reaction of an antigen, antibody or hapten immobilized to a carrier with the corresponding antibody or antigen, and so the detection by such agglutination reaction is widely adopted for the serodiagnosis of various diseases. As the carriers for the agglutination reaction, synthetic carriers such as a polystyrene latex, etc. and bio-carriers using red blood cells, bacterial cells, etc. are used (U.S. Pat. No. 3,088,875).
Generally, the synthetic carriers are chemically stable and have merits that they themselves have no antigenicity, while they have demerits that antigens, antibodies or haptens are not easily coupled to them. Further, they involve problems such as uniformity in particle diameter, non-specific agglutination, and the like.
On the other hand, the bio-carriers have defects such as low stability, low sensitivity in detection due to their own antigenicity, and the like, although they have merits such as stability in particle diameter.
A purpose of the present invention resides in providing novel agent and novel device which firmly immobilize antigens, antibodies or haptens and are capable of detecting antibodies or antigens in a sample with a high sensitivity, as a clinical reagent or material.
Another purpose of the present invention resides in providing a method for determining antigen or antibody using the above agent or device.